Boxer Jermain Taylor Accused of Pulling Gun on Couple, Kids

*A woman said Tuesday that Jermain Taylor threatened to fatally shoot her 5-, 3-, and 1-year-old children, and that she knocked the gun away after the cursing middleweight boxing champion put the weapon to her husband’s head in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Monday.

Toya Smith, 40, told The Associated Press that she and her family were minding their own business at the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade Monday when Taylor produced his boxing belt and asked to get a photo with her son. Smith says her family had never met Taylor before and that it appeared he was drunk.

“He bent down to give my son the belt and he almost fell over and dropped the belt, and he thought my baby dropped the belt,” Smith told The Associated Press.

She said Taylor — who already faces charges in an August shooting in Maumelle, Arkansas — produced a gun and fired two shots into the air and threatened to kill her husband.

“He put [the gun] up against his temple, I jumped in front of it and it went off up into the air,” injuring her husband’s ear, Smith told the AP. “He was going to shoot him, but I saw it, he was going to kill him and I had to hit the gun.”

A Little Rock police report says Taylor was arrested without incident and a gun was recovered. He is jailed on five felony counts of aggravated assault, three felony counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and a misdemeanor count of drug possession after he was found to have a small bag of marijuana.

Taylor was in custody Monday night at the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility in Little Rock in lieu of a $27,000 bond.

Smith told the AP that she and her family tried to get into their car and leave, but Taylor continued pointing the gun toward the vehicle.

“He was pointing at the kids, so I jumped in front of him again and said, ‘Please don’t shoot my kids,'” Smith said.

She said Taylor cursed, saying that he didn’t care about the children or her and that he was going to kill her husband.

Smith said her son and two daughters were unable to sleep and cried most of the night.

Taylor already was facing significant legal issues stemming from an incident in his home on Aug. 26, when he allegedly shot his cousin Tyrone DaWayne Hinton multiple times and fired a gun at (but missed) another person during an altercation.

The 36-year-old Taylor (33-4-1, 20 KOs) was charged with first-degree battery and first-degree terroristic threatening, and faces up to 26 years in prison if convicted. He pleaded not guilty in December and is supposed to go to trial in June.

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